Learning

While the learning of the student is important, there is also the learning of the teacher.

This was summed up this week by a post from Maurie, the principal of Hobsonville Point Secondary School. I believe it shows the learning that our teachers at school are going through and explains what their journey is at present. http://principalpossum.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/others-voices.html

I myself am I going through that Journey. Taking up a leadership role this year. The Learning Design Leader of Technology.

Over the weekend I attended the subject association committee meeting and contributed towards the discussions. Many of these are the same that happen at each new committee. How to develop a regional based structure, as well as Professional Development of the members.
It was interesting when I listened to the conversation, around how to develop regional based participation, the word clusters kept coming up. This causes many confusion of what a cluster is, we now have cluster of schools, clusters of teachers. The idea that has merit is one of Hubs. Considering how we have Learning Hubs at school, we need to develop what these regional Hubs will be focussed around, and who will lead the Hub. This will be developed as we go on through the year, but first thing, who is in each Hub? Have we got the areas sorted?

That night saw conversations with a cousin, who is into supporting youth through scouting. The ideas of dispositions and developing these as part of the scouting curriculum is of interest to me. It is great to see various students at school interested in scouting and talking about it with us teachers. The ideas around the slackline development as I talked about in my previous post came from his ideas. We are now developing a shared understanding of the lingo used. I also handed over the 12 GPS units that I used to support the Get Lost initiative that we ran at school last year for his scouts to learn how to use. Developing mini geocaches where scouts get GPS coordinates to be able to find, that then moves to geocaches around the city. Many talk about how the phones that they use could be used. But there is something in having just a basic tool to do a complex job that makes it unique. Also having conversations about his son's learning and how he is going at school, makes for some interesting conversations in the different way students learn.

Working through on Sunday writing an educational paper with another teacher about a project that we have been developing over the past four years has been one of reflection and challenge.
While writing this paper, it has been amazing the number of ideas and learning that I have taken from Hobsonville Point, and how before I was at the school was developing ideas and context around.
One of the ideas was around how teachers could mentor each other, which I see as the basis of the critical friendship that we have at school. See Ros' post about what this means. http://rosmaceachern.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/critical-friendships.html

The other is around growth mindset, being open to try new ideas, through searching growth mindset and Hobsonville Point Secondary School I came across Steve Mouldey's blog post which has been the basis of this weeks Hub lessons for me. https://stevemouldey.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/growth-mindset-activities-for-students/

I will have to search the #hpssblog (only just being introduced) more for other ideas I can use in my learning.

challenges - competitions developing innovation

Over the past three years there has been an industry run competition that has been run by Orion Health, codeworx.



This was initially started by an idea http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1303/S00798/orion-health-launches-codeworx-to-nurture-future-creators.htm

Computing in schools hasn't always been the most popular subject, and as a result, the talent pool in New Zealand has been limited. Traditionally computing has confined students to being users of software as opposed to being the creators and innovators. However, the advent of the Digital Technologies curriculum is changing this.. New Zealand is a country of innovation – so how can this now be further encouraged in schools? At Orion Health, we believe we have the answer: codeworx. 

codeworx will provide kids with cool prizes for thinking outside of the box and solving real world problems through innovative solutions. As well as this, codeworx will provide an online collaborative forum for you and your students to connect with peers, network with industry experts, and to learn how other students and schools are achieving NCEA standards. 

To kick start the codeworx program and to motivate kids to participate in the new digital technologies achievement standards, Orion Health has launched the 2013 codeworx challenge! Running from February 2013 through to September 2013 and open to every secondary school student in New Zealand, the 2013 codeworx challenge requires participants (individuals and teams) to come up with an innovative programming solution using a Raspberry Pi computer. 

There has been a tsunami of interest in the Raspberry Pi computers worldwide. This credit card sized computer has been a hit in schools in the UK and is beginning to take off in New Zealand. It’s time to jump on the bandwagon! The Raspberry Pi appeals to the tinkerers, the coders, the experimenters…it fits with the New Zealand psyche of innovation. The aim of the codeworx challenge is to ensure students have fun especially whilst achieving NCEA standards for those within the Digital Technologies curriculum. Orion Health would like to provide ten schools with a number of Raspberry Pi computers to get you started with the codeworx challenge. 

A panel of industry experts has been pulled together to judge the competition submissions and the winners will be identified by the end of November.
A number of cool prizes will be up for grabs for individuals and teams, including a summer internship at Orion Health, as well as spot prizes throughout the competition period.

Through this idea, schools registered interest and were sent raspberry pi kits, there is just one problem...



“New Zealand needs more companies like Orion Health”
John Key Oct 2012

On a visit to our Auckland office in 2012 during an address to our staff John Key stated that he believed NZ needs more companies like Orion.

Is he saying we need more ehealth companies? What he is alluding to that if we are as a nation to move into a true knowledge based economy we need a wave of successful tech start ups coming from our university graduates. Where are those graduates going to come from? They’re going to come from you’re high school classes of those sitting right here.

The problem: How do we get teachers to use what is provided?
Teachers are struggling, currently the new NCEA Digital Technologies Level 3 Achievement Standards are being introduced, these are not a refinement of previous Achievement Standards that other subjects are going through. These are new, never been done before. Professional Development is needed. But where is the professional development to support these new Achievement Standards?

In the 2013/2014 holidays 65 teachers respond to a campaign to get a Raspberry Pi so they can learn over the holidays what it can do and offer their students. This is impressive, it allowed teachers to experience the power of the Raspberry Pi.


2014, many teachers encouraged students to sign up for the competition, introduction evenings ran in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to get teachers to talk to developers about ideas. Videos of industry talking about projects that they have been working on rolled out.

With introductions to ideas from orion health staff

How to setup your pi

Included were some videos highlighting what the company looked like

2015 saw a large number of raspberry pi's given to schools and a large number of entries going by the number of awards that were given out at the end. It has provided a launchpad of a changing nature of the Digital Technologies learning area away from the previous computing subject.

It is unfortunate that there is not a formal announcement of the end of this competition. It has been  been a great initiative that has fulfilled its aim to change the perception of Computer Science in schools and build a pool of talent so desperately needed in the industry.

A big thanks to all the staff involved from Orion Health in the development, marketing, ongoing support of this competition. You have created something that will be dearly missed.